Installation

Installation of the necessary components took about 15 minutes. The tool-less design of the drive bays as well as the add-on cards saved a lot of time and made things easier to install. We had some difficulty getting a hard drive in the top two 3-1/2" bays, but once in, they locked in place with the sliding mechanism. The bottom three 3-1/2" bays also have aluminum platforms, which help stabilize hard drives to reduce vibrations.

Click to enlarge.

Installation of the motherboard took the most time to install, since the stand-offs as well as the motherboard had to be screwed in. We had some trouble getting the power supply in while the motherboard was mounted with a CPU heatsink on it. Many heatsinks are becoming larger as CPU's become more powerful and take up much more space. In order to install or replace a power supply, the heatsink must first be removed.

The problem with case mods is that they just emphasize the geekiness of the owner/creator. At least when you do it yourself, you're being a true geek and not just some poser. Personally, I like my cases to have as few lights as possible and to be quiet. Of course, my computers are all in the living room, which has something to do with my tastes. If you're watching some show on TV, you don't want to hear the whine of the fans and power supplies. Even more important, when it's bed time and you're stuck sleeping on the couch (hey, it happens), its really hard to fall asleep with glowing cases illuminating the room, and the data-centeresque turbine whine doesn't help either.

hahah, I'm sorry but this thing is anything but "good looking".. Am I the only one sick of these increadbly cheap and tacky looking cases? I used to think Thermaltake cases look like *&%@ till i saw this thing...

Lets get some reviews of cooler masters, silverstones, or Lian Li's...Reply

You know, I have a plain metallic grey Antec 1080 server case, and I game just fine.

I do have a red neon fan in there, but I don't even see that because the door it's installed in is facing away from me. Am I just destined for prosaic attitudes already at the tender age of seventeen? Or am I just too unimaginative to case mod?